Rachel is 23 years old and has Down syndrome. She lives in her own flat and receives services from the municipality. Her parents live just down the street from her.
Some of the challenges that Rachel face in her daily life are:
- Understanding the value of money.
- Shopping groceries by herself. If she tries to go shopping she cannot remember what to buy. Instead she buys unhealthy food. Besides she often brings too little money to pay for all the products she has selected.
Because of these challenges carers from the municipality usually shop groceries for her. Both Rachel and her parents wish that Rachel could be more independent so that she can buy groceries on her own. They think it is important for Rachel to be included into the society and do the same things as most other people.
Poseidon Money Handling apps
Rachel´s dad had heard about the Poseidon system that can help people with Down syndrome to become more independent and included into society. Two of the functionalities in the system are Money Handling Training and Money Handling Assistance. He thinks that using these can increase Rachel´s understanding of money value and support her while she is out shopping groceries.
By using the Money Handling Training app, Rachel can train on handling money so that she is prepared for shopping. She can use an interactive table that combines the functionalities of a touch table with gestures in the air. The interactive table is connected to a PC where the Money Handling app is installed. Rachel´s dad has already got hold of such a table and the corresponding app to be used together with the table.
The Money Handling Assistance is a shopping help for smartphones. The app gives the user a list of products to buy with their prices and how much money to bring to the shop. The Money Handling Assistance can be opened from the POSEIDON mobile app, which also offers other functionalities like calendar reminders.
Step 1 – preparation to test the two different apps
On Thursday evening Rachel´s dad invites Rachel over for dinner to tell her about the two apps and ask if she would like to try them. Rachel is very eager to be more independent and is happy to hear about POSEIDON and the two different apps that probably can help her to better understand the value of money and to be able to go grocery shopping on her own.
After dinner her dad downloads the POSEIDON mobile app on Rachel´s smart phone and the Money Handling Assistance app on his PC. Rachel´s dad also gets access to the Poseidon web where he can add events using pictures he has taken, text and symbols and also insert voice recordings. On this website he can also create a shopping list by adding names and pictures of products Rachel should buy together with the prices of the products. This list can be added to an event that Rachel will receive in her calendar on her mobile phone (in the POSEIDON mobile app).
Rachel and her dad agree that Rachel should go to the shop on her way home from work on Monday to buy herself some groceries: a pack of apples, a pack of eggs, a cheese, a bread and two yoghurts, by using the Money Handling Assistance. But before she can do so she will have to practice on the Money Handling Training app by using the interactive table. They agree that she will also use the Money Handling Assistance app together with her dad during the weekend to get familiar with using the app before using it on her own on Monday.
On Friday morning (as he starts later at work this day) Rachel´s dad goes to the same shop that Rachel will be using. He takes pictures of different products and price tags that he wants Rachel to buy during the weekend and on Monday.
After coming home, in order to create the shopping list, Rachel´s dad sits down at the PC. He also knows that he can use the tablet, but prefers to use the PC. He transfers all the pictures he took in the grocery shop to his PC before he accesses the Poseidon web. There he selects “Shopping” adds the products by naming them, setting the prices and uploading his pictures. Then he creates a shopping list and selects the products. The total price gets added up.
Next he creates a calendar event that will remind Rachel to go shopping together with him later that day and to bring her wallet.
He also adds another event for the day to remind Rachel to come over to his place to use the Money Handling Training app before they will go to the grocery shop. He adds a picture of the interactive table and encourages her to try a few times.
Before Rachel is coming, he enters the personalization settings for the Money Handling Training app on his PC. There he can customize the app according to Rachel´s needs and preferences. Among other things, he selects for Rachel to touch the table with her hands and not to control the app by hand motions in the air. In order to help Rachel in the beginning he activates the option to have the sum of the selected money displayed. He can change this later when Rachel feels more confident with handling the different values of money.
Step 2 – training
Later that day Rachel receives, on POSEIDON mobile app, the event her dad made to remind her that she needs to train Money Handling in the house of her parents. She can see a picture of the interactive table in her their living room.
She walks over to the house of her parents and goes straight to the interactive table, which is already set up, eager to try it for the first time. Her dad has already started the app on his PC.
After her dad has explained how it works, Rachel chooses “play“ by touching the table and sees the first product (that was entered into the shopping list by her dad in step 1). This is a cheese. She sees how much the cheese costs, and is supposed to choose the different coins or bills that she needs to pay the product with. The product costs 8 Euro so she starts with touching the picture of the 5 Euro bill. When she touches the yellow “confirm” area she can see that 5 Euros are added on the screen. She touches the 5 Euro bill once more and the yellow area again. Now she can see that the screen says 10 euro, and when she touches the green “pay” area, a message that she is right (she has paid enough money) appears on the screen. She gets the option to try again with the same product, and so she does because she would like to manage to pay the exact amount this time.
She tries again, and this time she again chooses the 5 Euro bill, but then, instead of choosing the same bill once again, she touches the picture of the 2 Euro coin. Now she can see that the screen says 7 Euro. With a little help from her dad she chooses 1 Euro more. Now the screen says 8 Euro, so she touches the “pay” area on the table. A message that it is correct appears.
She can then choose to repeat the product or to go to the next product until she has trained on finding the correct amounts for all the products. She plays it several times. After a while she starts to manage to pay correctly with no help from her dad. She feels very proud.
When Rachel has finished training, the Poseidon app on her phone reminds her to go shopping with her dad. It also reminds her to add the amount of money she will need in her wallet. Her dad has set up this reminder in the calendar using the Poseidon web earlier that day.
Rachel opens the Poseidon app on her mobile phone together with her dad and chooses the Money Handling Assistance. Here she can click on a virtual wallet and then enter the bill she has in front of her by touching the picture of the same bill on her phone. Then the shopping app tells her to add some more coins. She does this, and after touching the pictures of these coins, the app tells her that she has enough money.
Rachel walks together with her dad to the shop close to her house. Inside the shop her dad tells her to use her POSEIDON app and choose the shopping list. He explains that she must look at the photos to find the correct products in the shop. Whenever she finds one product, her dad explains that she needs to tap on the product in the app. She can see that the sum of the ticked products is automatically calculated. When she has found everything on the list, she pays for the products. The app knows how much she has to pay and suggests to pay 12.33 Euro with the 10 Euro bill, two 2 Euro coins and a 50 cent coin. She can see the pictures of the same bill and coins that she selected before they went to the shop. After handing the money to the cashier, she selects this amount of money on the app and presses OK. Then she can see how much she should get in return from the cashier.
Rachel and her dad trains both on the coming Friday, Saturday and Sunday both by using the interactive table and buying products in the shop (as this a Sunday open shop). This is to make sure Rachel feels confident about shopping by herself on Monday.
When they do the shopping on Sunday Rachel can manage it all by herself. She is very proud and feels confident that tomorrow when she will try this on her own.
Step 3 Assistance
On Sunday evening the Poseidon App on the phone reminds Rachel to add the correct amount of money into her wallet. Her dad has set up this reminder in the calendar using the Poseidon web.
After all the training Rachel can very well remember what to do. She opens the Poseidon app and chooses the Money Handling Assistance. She then clicks the wallet and enters one of her bills. Then the shopping app suggests that more money should be added. She enters one more bill and some coins, until the app tells her she has met the amount she needs to go shopping the next day.
Before she goes to bed the POSEIDON mobile app gives her a notice that she needs to place her phone on the charger, as the battery charge is 20% and she needs full battery charging for the next day (Context Awareness). It is a very clever phone that reminds her about this in a way that she very easily can see.
On Monday morning, Rachel receives a calendar event on the POSEIDON mobile app reminding her to bring her wallet with the money she added the day before. She can see the picture of her wallet together with the message from her dad.
Later that day, on the way back from work, Rachel goes to the shop where she has been training during the weekend.
Rachel enters the shop. She opens the POSEIDON app, finds the shopping list and does the shopping exactly the same way as during the weekend training. She manages to use the app and find all the products and to pay with a suitable amount of money.
After the shopping she goes straight to the house of her parents to show her parents that for the first time she has managed to shop grocery all by herself. Both she and her mom and dad and are so proud!